Lloyd's POV

I groggily groan, rolling over. As I slowly regain my consciousness, I realize what just happened. I bolt up, sitting up from the reclining position I was resting in. When I scan the room, I spot Zane sitting on the other side of the small table in front of me.

"You are awake. Would you like some tea?" Zane offers, holding out a cup for me. Reluctantly, I take it. "You were unconscious for nearly two hours since I found you."

"Two hours? Last time was five minutes!" I exclaim, my eyes widening.

"Yes, but I am estimating that there was a greater strain put on your being because of Mara," Zane informs me, standing up. "I sense that something very bad is afoot, but I could not leave you alone while you were unconscious."

"Where are the others?" I ask, rolls my shoulders to try to loosen up.

"As I said before, I could not leave you alone, so when none of my messages to Kai, Jay, or Cole went through, I could not reach them. Additionally, Master Wu and Garmadon left in a rush even before you were unconscious, I believe. I am still unsure of where they were leaving," he admits. At the thought of the rest of our team being unreachable, my brain jumps to the only conclusion.

"Do you think something bad happened to them? I knew we shouldn't have trusted Nya with them," I groan, putting my head in my hands.

"They are in adequate condition. Currently, they are being swarmed by a large crowd of fans, so they most likely cannot get to their phones," he explains.

"Of all the days," I grumble, taking a sip of the tea. "We need to find them, ASAP. Did any of them tell you where they were going to lunch?"

"No, but I have been trying to analyze all possible footage of them. It appears the stopped at the museum, and they have not been spotted since. My estimate is that they are traveling via a secret route," he explains. "It is safest that we stay here. Even though I called and warned the police that the palace would most likely be attacked, Mara and Ciara have still attacked the palace and most likely have gained a foothold there. If they conquer the city quickly, it will be best if all of us are not in the same location."

Although I know all of his words are logical, I protest,"We can't leave them in a lion's den. We need to get them!"

"Lloyd, we cannot save Ninjago if all of us are under their control. Once we have their clear location, we can get them," Zane argues calmly and logically. I go to find an argument, but I can't think of anything.

I let out a long sigh, "You're right. Once everyone, including my father and Master Wu, are back, we can come up with a game plan."

---

Nya's POV

Kai, Cole, Jay and I all jump down from the roofs we were traveling across. We used the same method Jay and I used all that time ago when we were trying to make it to the police station. Since Master Wu has been teaching me spinjitzu, I was able to travel just as efficiently as the guys.

"You never told me Wu taught you spinjitzu," Kai says as we land. A few people give us some glances and point, but no one approaches us.

"I didn't want to tell you until I completely mastered it," I admit, brushing some hair out of my face.

"Well, from the looks of it, you're pretty good at it," Cole says, giving me a pat on the back before looking around. "We should probably get inside before people spot us."

"You just want to get to the food faster," Jay nudges him in the side. "But yeah, I agree. I'm famished."

"Did you really genuinely use 'famished' in a sentence?" Kai asks, raising an eyebrow in amusement.

"Yes, I did. Have a problem with it, Fireboy?" Jay retorts, crossing his arms.

"Not at all. I just found it funny," he shrugs, walking past all of us and towards the door to the restaurant. "Are you all coming or not?"

The three of us follow him, walking through the door to the restaurant. Tables are lining the edges of the room, with some scattered in the center. The maroon walls are lined with paintings of landscapes and clouds.

In the front, a man stands at a wooden podium. He glances up at us before looking back down at the paper he was looking at. However, his eyebrows furrow, and he looks back up, his eyes widening. "Th-the ninja," he stammers.

"We're trying to keep a low profile. Is there any way you could seat us in a booth in the corner?" Kai asks, casually leaning against the podium.

"Of course. Follow me," he immediately grabs four menus and leads us to a secluded corner of the restaurant. We take our seats, Kai and Cole sliding into one side and Jay and I into the other. "Your server will be here soon."

"Thank you," Jay responds. The guy walks away, glancing over his shoulder as he does so. "So basically you read the menu and can choose whatever you want to eat. They'll make it for you and bring it out," Jay explains.

"What do you recommend? There's...so much," I say, attempting to flip through all of the pages of the menu.

"Well I personally really like the meatball sub..."

"Meatball sub? Gross. If you really want something good, you should get the hot wings," Kai interrupts Jay, leaning back in his seat.

"Hot wings are revolting, completely revolting. Like imagine ordering something only to not taste it but only feel your tongue burning, blegh," Jay shakes his head from next to me.

"What's clam chowder?" I ask, tuning out their harmless bickering and reading through the menu.

"It's a soup with a cream base that has clams and potatoes and things like that in it," Cole explains. Although I can't really picture it, it intrigues me.

"I'll get that," I declare, closing my menu.

"What're you getting, Cole?" Jay asks. As he does so, he intertwines his fingers with mine, sending sparks shooting through my body. The feeling causes all tension to melt away.

"Well, I'm debating between the crab cakes and the lasagna..." he drifts off, making Kai snort.

"You know that crab cakes aren't actual cake, right?" Kai raises an eyebrow in his direction.

"Oh really? I had no idea," Cole says sarcastically. "I'm probably going with the lasagna."

---

The longer we wait for our food, the more people start to notice us. Initially, it was just a few people, but now it feels as if the whole restaurant is looking at us. I catch them staring and pointing at us as if we can't see them. Thankfully, no one has approached us yet.

While Cole and Kai watch whatever is on the television, something with people sliding around on ice with sticks, I'm engrossed in a conversation with Jay.

"So we needed to make rent, and since we were ninja, none of us had formal jobs with an actual income. Cole became a guard at the bank, which was perfect for him before he let the Serpentine generals rob the bank. Zane became a chef, and Kai became a party entertainer, which was absolutely hilarious, considering he had to be a human piñata," Jay tells me a story about their time when they were trying to train Lloyd. He talks eagerly, a spark in his eyes.

"Hey, we agreed to never talk about the human piñata again," Kai's attention is briefly taken off of the screen to glare at Jay.

"Whoops, it slipped," Jay shrugs.

"It doesn't sound too bad," I admit. Kai's eyes widen.

"Oh, it was humiliating."

"Um, you guys need to look at the tv," Cole nudges Kai's shoulder, all color drained out of his face. When I turn to look at the screen, I see my four sisters flanking the news reporter, Gayle, who appears tied up.

"Oh no," I whisper to myself.

"Citizens of Ninjago," Skylor starts. The sound of her voice shakes me to my core, and it seems to do the same to Kai, who winces once she talks. "I'm Skylor, and these are my sisters: Seliel, Chamille, and PIXAL. We would like to welcome you into a new era of Ninjago. PIXAL, cut to the image."

As she says that, my sisters disappear, and an extremely grotesque picture appears on the screen. Two people, who I'm assuming are the emperor and empress, lie on the ground in odd positions. The emperor's face is coated in a dark liquid that appears to ooze out of his mouth, his skin nit covered in the liquid a deathly white and seemingly limp. The empress's back appears to sharply bend inwards, all life on her face gone.

"Our mother, Mara, took control of the palace, and is ready to turn Ninjago into a great place, a wonderful place. She killed your rulers and took their place with an army of stone warriors behind her. Now, using her powers, she can take over anything," Skylor explains further, the picture still on the screen.

"Now, we have access to the entire chamber of weapons in the palace, and all of the controls for underground missles. Mara is not afraid to use them if she doesn't get what she wants, which is two things. Firstly, she needs your cooperation and loyalty to forming a better Ninjago, her Ninjago."

Now, the screen cuts to a picture from the team instabrick that we took about a week ago. We're sitting on the deck of the Bounty. Lloyd sits on the edge next to Kai, chatting about something. I'm in between Kai and Jay, laughing at something Jay said. Cole is sitting next to Jay, also laughing along, while Zane sits next to him, looking confused at what Jay said.

"Secondly, we need the retrieval of the ninja, alive. Lloyd Garmadon: the master of energy, Kai Smith: the master of fire, Nya: the master of water, Jay Walker: the master of lightning, Cole Brookstone: the master of earth, and Zane Julien: the master of ice must all be in our possession within the span of two weeks. If either they don't turn themselves in, or no one brings them to the palace, restrained, there will be dire consequences. For each ninja we don't have, Mara is going to release a bomb onto one of Ninjago's villages, but you all won't know which ones are going to be hit until the bombs are released."

"Oh, no, no, no, this is so bad," I hear Jay murmur in front of me, and I watch his chest start to rise and fall at an elevated pace.

"And ninja, if you're watching this, Mara already has the police under her control. They're going to find you sooner or later, so you might as well cut it short and turn yourselves in, or else people are going to get hurt as a result," Skylor threatens, but I can tell these aren't her words. She was always a puppet, with Ciara controlling her. I know that my older sister would never, ever think of this by herself. She's being manipulated.

"We need to go," Cole says quietly. Kai stares at the screen, conflict clear across his features. His eyebrows are furrowed as he watches the screen in front of us. In front of me, Jay starts to panic, his breaths becoming more shallow. For me, I feel intense pain looking up at that screen, my chest tight and heart heavy.

"Welcome to the new Ninjago," Skylor says before the screen cuts to static. Everyone in the room looks at us, looks of fear and malice on their faces and others of sympathy.

"Get them! If we don't, innocent people will get hurt!" someone declares, standing up from their booth.

"No, stop it!" a teenage girl stands up, blocking the man, who is on the shorter but buffer side, from reaching us. "Can't you see that the only reason they want the ninja is to squash any chance of them getting defeated! We need to let them go!"

"I'm not letting the lives of my loved ones be decided by six teenagers!" someone else yells, standing up to approach the girl.

"Last time I checked, those teenagers have saved all of our lives multiple times!" an old man with fuzzy white hair says from his seat.

Soon, the entire restaurant is yelling, some even getting violent. It's as if they forgot we were here.

"This is bad, so, so bad. They killed the emperor and empress! They have the entire police force, an entire supply of extremely deadly bombs and weapons, multiple elemental masters, and an army of indestructible stone warriors! What do we have? Yeah, we outnumber them in elemental masters, but that's all we have! W

e're still screwed!" Jay paces back and forth, tugging at his hair. The people in the restaurant don't even notice.

"We just need to get back to the Bounty. Then, we can come up with a plan," Cole suggests calmly, but Jay doesn't seem to calm down.

"How do you expect us to do that? There are people who are willing to turn us in in a heartbeat! We have powers, but we can't hurt civilians, and if enough of them come after us, everything is over!"

"They're busy; we can escape," I gesture over to the mob that's practically forgotten we're here.

"We can't leave them high and dry," Cole says.

"Nya is right. What good are we if they decide to try to turn us in? We need to make it back to the Bounty," Kai agrees.

"And then?"

"We're going to find a way to beat Mara," I say, optimistically.

"The power of positive thinking, I like it."

"Now, we need to go. I mean, if we could sneak around the Dark Island, how hard could this be?"

A/N I'm so, so sorry for the late update guys. Things have been busy, but hey, I'm not going to stop writing this story

Also, if you haven't checked it out, there's a Ninjago fanfic contest by NinjagoFanficAwards where you can nominate fanfics under one of 5 categories (best romance, Ninjago in general, best high school, best truth or dare, and best Xreader I think)

Sooo the boys know that the girls are here. Things are about to get messy, but that's exactly how we like it ;)

Also, for future reference in other stories (since everything is established for this story) how do you all feel about cuss words/ more intense romantic scenes (if you know what I mean) in stories? I don't ever want to make anyone uncomfortable with anything I write since I want my stories to be for whoever wants to read them.

Thoughts on the chapter?

Thank you for sticking around!